Elevator inspection software that keeps every conveyance on its certificate date

An elevator inspection is a periodic examination of a conveyance against the safety code its jurisdiction has adopted, performed by a licensed or commissioned inspector and resulting in a report, any violations and a certificate of operation. The federal marine terminal rule at 29 CFR 1917.116 sets a thorough inspection at intervals not exceeding one year plus monthly operational checks, and requires the latest annual record to be posted in the car. Neurobird holds each conveyance with its history, open violations and expiry.

12 monthsthe maximum interval between thorough inspections
$600New York elevator inspection contractor licence fee
24 hoursIowa deadline to report a conveyance accident
Elevator inspector checking governor and safeties in a machine room while filling in the annual inspection report
The only current record is posted inside the car. That is the problem.

Neurobird Elevator Inspection in short

  • Hold every conveyance as a record: type, building, equipment, jurisdiction number and certificate expiry
  • Schedule annual and periodic tests from the last inspection date rather than a calendar year that suits the office
  • Capture violations on site with the code reference, then track them through correction and re-inspection
  • 12 months Elevators and escalators must be thoroughly inspected at intervals not exceeding one year, with additional monthly inspections for satisfactory operation conducted by designated persons, and the latest annual record posted in the elevator. eCFR, 29 CFR 1917.116
  • $600 New York charges $600 for an elevator inspection contractor licence and $600 for an elevator contractor licence, each renewable every two years and each requiring proof of insurance carrying a one million dollar minimum. New York State Department of Labor
  • Pricing runs 190 to 760 US dollars per month across 3 tiers. Early access is free.

What elevator inspection contractors and conveyance authorities actually deal with

Every conveyance is on its own annual clock, and the clock started on whatever date the last inspection happened to fall.
A violation gets written on site, corrected weeks later by somebody else, and the proof of correction lives in an email nobody can find at renewal.
The record of the latest annual inspection has to be posted in the car, so the paper copy in the office is the second copy and often the only accurate one.

Why it stays broken

Elevator inspection is regulated unit by unit, jurisdiction by jurisdiction, on dates set by whenever the last inspection happened. There is no national register and no shared calendar, so a contractor working three states runs three sets of rules against one spreadsheet. The conveyance itself carries the only fully current record, posted inside the car where nobody in the office can see it.

Under 29 CFR 1917.116 an elevator must be thoroughly inspected at intervals not exceeding one year, with additional monthly operational checks by designated persons.

All individuals who perform work on an elevator or conveyance must be licensed as an Elevator Mechanic, except as permitted by licensing as an Accessibility Lift Technician or as an Elevator Accessibility Technician.

New York State elevator licensing, source

Neurobird Elevator Inspection Compliance Platform

Make the conveyance the record. Every inspection, test, violation and certificate hangs off the unit, and the schedule counts forward from what actually happened.

  • 1Hold every conveyance as a record: type, building, equipment, jurisdiction number and certificate expiry
  • 2Schedule annual and periodic tests from the last inspection date rather than a calendar year that suits the office
  • 3Capture violations on site with the code reference, then track them through correction and re-inspection
  • 4Produce the inspection report and the certificate record in a form the jurisdiction and the building owner both accept

What changes with Neurobird Elevator Inspection?

The same work, read left to right: how it runs today, and how it runs once the record is in one place.

Elevator inspection: current practice compared with Neurobird Elevator Inspection
TodayWith Neurobird Elevator Inspection
Every conveyance is on its own annual clock, and the clock started on whatever date the last inspection happened to fallHold every conveyance as a record: type, building, equipment, jurisdiction number and certificate expiry
A violation gets written on site, corrected weeks later by somebody else, and the proof of correction lives in an email nobody can find at renewalSchedule annual and periodic tests from the last inspection date rather than a calendar year that suits the office
The record of the latest annual inspection has to be posted in the car, so the paper copy in the office is the second copy and often the only accurate oneCapture violations on site with the code reference, then track them through correction and re-inspection

Who is this for?

Same conveyance record, three different operations.

Private inspection contractor

You inspect for owners

You hold a licence and inspect other people's equipment. You need scheduling by expiry, a report the jurisdiction accepts and evidence that violations were closed.

Jurisdiction elevator bureau

You issue the certificate

Thousands of registered units, commissioned private inspectors and state staff. You need a register, an inspection due list and a clean audit trail per unit.

Building portfolio owner

You hold the equipment

Dozens of conveyances across a portfolio, each with a maintenance contractor and a certificate date. You need to know what expires next and what is still open.

The register, unit by unit

A working preview. Tick a conveyance to move it through the inspection.

neurobird / elevator inspection
3 / 5
requirements current
RequirementStatusNext due
Violation cleared, door restrictorcurrentin 42d
Certificate expires in 21 days, unit 4102due soonin 9d
Category 1 test due, hydraulic 2currentin 120d
Escalator annual, Riverside Malloverdue3d late
Alteration acceptance, new controllercurrentin 64d

Tick a requirement to file evidence against it.

What the numbers say about elevator inspection

Useful if you are setting up a route or preparing a jurisdiction submission. Each source links out.

12 months

Elevators and escalators must be thoroughly inspected at intervals not exceeding one year, with additional monthly inspections for satisfactory operation conducted by designated persons, and the latest annual record posted in the elevator.

eCFR, 29 CFR 1917.116
$600

New York charges $600 for an elevator inspection contractor licence and $600 for an elevator contractor licence, each renewable every two years and each requiring proof of insurance carrying a one million dollar minimum.

New York State Department of Labor
45 days

New York treats the licence approval email as a temporary licence valid for up to 45 days while the hard card certificate is in the post, so a newly licensed inspector can work from the email.

New York State Department of Labor
24 hours

Iowa requires an owner to notify the state immediately of an accident involving a conveyance, with the accident and incident form marked mandatory within 24 hours, on top of registration and a posted operating permit.

Iowa Department of Inspections, Appeals and Licensing
8 weeks

Iowa asks for an elevator installation or alteration permit application at least eight weeks before the work, and only issues the permit after plan review, which is why alteration acceptance dates slip.

Iowa Department of Inspections, Appeals and Licensing

How does Neurobird Elevator Inspection work?

  1. Every conveyance is a record

    Type, drive, capacity, building, jurisdiction identifier and certificate date, held per unit rather than per building.

  2. Dates schedule the work

    The annual inspection, the periodic tests and the certificate expiry all count from the last completed event, so a route builds itself.

  3. Violations are tracked to closure

    Each finding carries its code reference, the date issued, the correction and the re-inspection, so nothing is cleared by assumption.

Elevator inspection software questions, answered

Key terms

What is an elevator inspection?
An elevator inspection is a periodic examination of a conveyance against the safety code adopted by its jurisdiction, carried out by a licensed or commissioned inspector, resulting in a report, any violations and a certificate of operation. Federal marine terminal rules at 29 CFR 1917.116 put the interval at not exceeding one year, and most state and city programmes work to an annual certificate as well.
What are the periodic tests on an elevator?
Beyond the annual inspection, conveyances are subject to periodic tests set by the adopted safety code, commonly split into a lighter annual category and a heavier multi-year category covering items such as safeties, governors and relief valves. Jurisdictions publish the test forms, as Iowa does for traction, hydraulic, platform lift and escalator tests.

How often must inspection records be posted?

Under 29 CFR 1917.116(e) the record of the latest annual elevator inspection must be posted in the elevator itself, and annual escalator inspection records posted nearby or available at the terminal. That is why the car is often the only current copy.

Does it do the maintenance side too?

No. Maintenance control programmes and service calls stay with the maintenance contractor. What lives here is the inspection: the schedule, the findings, the corrections and the certificate.

Can violations be recorded on site?

Yes. A finding is captured against the conveyance with its code reference and a photo, then tracked through correction and re-inspection, so the certificate is issued against evidence rather than memory.

Does it handle more than elevators?

It handles conveyances generally: escalators, moving walks, dumbwaiters, material lifts and platform lifts. They sit under the same registration and inspection regimes in most jurisdictions.

Why we are building this

An elevator inspection produces three things: a report, a list of violations and a certificate. In most operations those three live in three places, and the only fully current copy of the first one is taped inside the car.

That is why renewal season is frantic. Not because the inspections are hard, but because reconstructing which unit is due, what was found last time and whether it was ever corrected takes longer than the inspections themselves.

We would rather build this with inspectors and elevator bureaus than with people who have read the code. Tell us how your due list gets built, and where we have got it wrong.

Neurobird Team neurobird.com

Where the requirement comes from

The federal and state rules an elevator inspection answers to.

How much does Neurobird Elevator Inspection cost?

Priced per inspecting organisation because licences, routes and report formats sit at that level. Conveyances, inspections and users are unlimited on every tier.

Single inspector
$190
per organisation, per month
  • Conveyance register
  • Certificate expiry board
  • On site inspection capture
  • Report output
  • Email support
Request access
Inspection contractor
$380
per organisation, per month
  • Everything in Single inspector
  • Violation tracking to closure
  • Route scheduling
  • Owner notifications
  • Named contact
Request access
Jurisdiction
$760
per organisation, per month
  • Everything in Inspection contractor
  • Commissioned inspector oversight
  • Permit and alteration records
  • Public register export
  • Onboarding included
Talk to us
First 15 inspection organisations get early access pricing locked for three years

Get free early access

If you inspect conveyances, tell us how your due list gets built and what happens to a violation after you leave the site.

Straight answer on where this is: In development. Early access gets the working preview, a say in what ships first, and early access pricing. It does not get you a login today.

Prefer email? Write to office@neurobird.com and a person will reply. No autoresponder.